Can Jira and Confluence support windows authentication

capgemini.h.hussain

Your guidance on this would be greatly appreciated.
We are currently using SQL authentication for the database instances where the Atlassian applications (Jira and Confluence) are deployed.

Could you please confirm whether Atlassian applications support Windows Authentication (Integrated Authentication) for SQL Server database connectivity?

If Windows Authentication is supported, could you please let us know:

• Whether any configuration changes are required.

• What configuration files or application settings need to be updated.

• Any prerequisites or additional steps that need to be followed for this migration.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Kind regards,

Althaf

Gabriela - LeanZero

Not officially. Atlassian supports SQL Server authentication (the DB username/password you're on now), and Integrated/Windows Authentication for the database connection sits outside their support scope, so they won't back you if it misbehaves. That's the caveat.

That said, it does work and Atlassian has KB articles for it. Add integratedSecurity=true to the JDBC URL in dbconfig.xml (Jira) or confluence.cfg.xml (Confluence), and leave the username/password tags in place but filled with dummy values:

jdbc:sqlserver://SERVER\INSTANCE:1433;databaseName=jira;integratedSecurity=true

Then drop the matching mssql-jdbc_auth-<version>-<arch>.dll onto the app's library path, since it isn't shipped by default and the driver needs it for the native handshake.

One thing catches people out here. The driver authenticates as the Windows identity of the service account running Jira/Confluence, not a user you put in the config. So run the Jira/Confluence Windows service under a domain account that has access to the SQL Server database. LocalSystem won't get you there.

If you're on Jira 7.4 or below it's the older jTDS driver, which is set up differently.